QUEUING MODELS FOR HOSPITAL WAITING LISTS

This paper uses some recent research on queueing models to investigate some of the management implications of feedback in waiting lists. It examines some of the likely implications of a recent report of The College of Health, in which patients and their general practitioners are encouraged to 'shop around' for short waiting lists. In order to facilitate this process, the report provides hospital waiting-list indicators (HWIs), namely tables of long and short waiting lists, by speciality and by health district.